Kagnian
Classification and Dialects Phonology Consonants Vowels Phonotactics Similar to many languages' vowel harmony, Kagnian has "consonant harmony." Words with soft consonants are material (in gender), whereas those with hard consonants are abstract. Neutral consonants can be in any word, although in situations where grammar differs between material and abstract words, spelling, syntax, etc. neutral consonants would be considered soft. Hook Hook modifies how a word is pronounced. There are two hooks: solid and humid. Solid is the regular pronunciation of a word, but humid words are pronounced slightly differently. They are said with a slight curve of the tongue up in the mouth, almost sounding like a retroflex approximant is being said under the word. The hook of a word can completely change its meaning. Take for example the words /däʒim/ (solid) and /däʒim/ (humid), meaning house and fish, respectively. Solid: Humid: Stress Stress always falls on the penultimate (second to last) syllable. Consonants with diphthong are considered one syllable. Writing System The ( / kɒkätɛsi / ) writing system is an abugida/alphasyllabary* with five basic rules: #Everything is written from left to right #Whether or not a consonant is soft or hard can generally be determined from context and spelling #Each of the six vowels can generally be fit into three patterns of how they interact with consonants: super-letter, sub-letter, and para-letter: *The only super-letter vowel is /ɛ/; the circular symbol is simply placed above its consonant. If it is being used with then the vowel attaches to the line in the middle: - /bɛ/ */ɯ/, /o̞/, and /ɒ/ are all sub-letter vowels. Their distinct curves at the bottoms of their default character are attached underneath their consonants. is somewhat irregular. If the word is material, the vowel attaches to the left line; if abstract, it's in the right. Examples: , , and - /ʀɯ/, /zo̞/, and /mɒ/. *The para-vowels have more irregularities. For the symbol, it is written or attached to the left of the consonant if it is in a material word and to the right if it is abstract: , - /di/, /r̥i/. As for the symbol, if the word is material, the whole symbol is written to the left of its consonant (except for , see ahead), and if it's abstract, a curved line is written on the top. is irregular in the same way that is with sub-letter vowels. Examples: , , and - /ʃä/, /ka/, and /ta/. 4. The placeholder is used for vowels with no consonant preceding them and for diphthong. The repeat symbol is used when the consonant is the same as the previous one. 5. Each word of two or more characters has a straight line underneath it in between the consonants and the sub-letter vowels. *A writing system where the vowel interacts and/or fuses with the consonant it proceeds. Vowels are less there own individual sounds, and more attributes of their corresponding consonants. Grammar Nouns Nouns have no plural form or articles, however there are eight noun cases aside from those. Notice how when the final vowel of a noun is the same as the vowel of the case suffix, the final consonant is simply replaced. Similarly, if the noun ends in the same consonant, then the vowel is replaced with the suffix's vowel. Also realize that when inflecting abstract nouns, the locative and instrumental cases' suffixes would become -os and -ap respectively. When inflecting nouns that end in a vowel, things change a little bit. A suffix is added to the noun stem, which is found by replacing the final vowel with /ä/, /i/, or /ɯ/ (short) if it is /ɒ/, /ɛ/, or /o̞/ (long). Otherwise is is simply the noun unchanged (ɲ will be represented with ñ; ɒ - "aw"). *these suffixes replaces the whole final vowel Adjectives Adjectives merely follow the noun they describe if said noun is abstract and precede should it be material. Adjectives must agree with their nouns in gender and in case. Adjectives can even describe pronouns to show how someone feels about something; "angry me got into a fight" would mean something along the lines of "I was angry and/so I got into a fight." Adverbs As strange as it sounds, adverbs don't exist in Kagnian. Rather, adjectives are used; "the man walks happily down the street" would simply be reformed into the sentence "the happy man walks down the street." Pronouns There are only two pronouns in Kagnian: personal and impersonal. Personal is simply first person, and impersonal is everything else, covering second and third person (ʃ/ʒ will be represented with "sh"/"zh") Verbs Almost every verb in Kagnian can be divided into either material (eat, build, talk, etc.), with soft consonants, and abstract (believe, want, think), with hard consonants. Some verbs, most of which are sensory based, are caught in between (read, watch, hear) and can be used in either form indiscriminately. Conjugation There are a few verb categories in Kagnian depending on the ending of the infinitive: -©a -ba/-pa, -ska, and -(v)a verbs. *for -©a verbs, the "a" is removed to form the stem: "meada" becomes "mead-" *the stem of -ba/-pa verbs is made by replacing the -ba/-pa with "v"/"f": "zawneba" becomes "zawnev-" *for -ska verbs, which are only ever abstract, replace the -ska with "l": "paska" becomes "pal-" *-(v)a verbs drop their "a," and their vowel becomes its short vowel counterpart: "sonea" becomes "soni-" The main tenses are non-past (present and future in one tense) and past. Habitual actions are marked by adding the suffix -mi to the verb ending (-ezmi, -ahenmi), and actions are made perfect (had/have done) by adding the suffix -te/-de in the same fashion (-afte, -elde). Syntax Lexicon Example text Category:Languages